Sticky Pines: The Thing At Black Hole Lake

Dashe Roberts's Sticky Pines: The Thing At Black Hole Lake is a spooky, funny monster mystery for 9 year olds, and it's the second Sticky Pines book.

What happens

That matters, because this one carries straight on from the first. Milo and Lucy had a very strange month together before this book starts, and now they're barely speaking. The story doesn't stop to explain what happened. So if your reader hasn't met them yet, start with The Bigwoof Conspiracy.

Milo's day begins badly. His dad drives his new sports car much too fast round the lake and hits a white stag. Milo climbs down the slope to help it. It staggers into the steaming water and swims for the island, and something seems to pull it under.

That night he walks home from a Halloween party dressed as a politician. He borrows a rowing boat that has conveniently drifted to the shore (never a good sign). Halfway across, something starts whistling his tune back at him from under the water.

Meanwhile Lucy, purple hair, glasses and a Star Trek costume, is chasing her own clues. An old school yearbook in the library turns up a photo that doesn't make any sense. What would your reader do with a clue like that? Lucy tears the page out.

It's told from both sides, and that's a big part of the fun. You get Milo's snooty thoughts ("This town's infrastructure is seriously subpar") and Lucy's wild ones. Each of them is quietly desperate to talk to the other and far too proud to go first.

The language is its own treat. Holy slug spit. Pickled beets. Leaping Lehmans. Your reader will probably start saying them.

A heads-up on the scary bits. The stag doesn't come back up, and Milo ends up in the lake and very nearly drowns. His mum died before the story begins, which comes up briefly. It's creepy rather than gory, and the jokes keep coming right through the scary bits.

If your reader likes the idea of monsters hiding in a small mountain town and kids nobody believes, this is great fun. They just need the first book before this one.

What to read next

For another boy in an ordinary town who's the only one who can see the monster, try Too Ghoul For School. It's set in a British secondary school, and the monster at lunchtime is made of rubbish.